REFILE-Academics urge countries to reject IMF vote formula

(refiles to remove garble from the top)

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - A group of influential Washington-based academics have urged IMF member countries in a letter to vote against a proposed new voting formula, arguing it falls far short of what is needed to give emerging and developing nations a bigger voice in the institution.

The March 26 letter by the eight academics to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) executive board comes ahead of a key meeting on Friday to decide whether to recommend the formula to the IMF's board of governors for approval.

The governors are finance ministers or central bank chiefs from the Fund's 185 member countries.

The group of academics includes Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, Ralph Bryant, Colin Bradford, Homi Karas, Johannes Linn of the Brookings Institution, Ted Truman and John Williamson of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Jo Marie Griesgraber of the New Rules for Global Finance Coalition.

Many of them have worked for either the World Bank or the IMF or previous U.S. administrations and are widely respected for their insight into global economic and development issues.

"We write to express our concern that the proposed reforms fall far short in addressing the challenges facing the IMF in its evolution toward a truly global institution with more balanced and inclusive representation and voting power," they said.

"In the absence of stronger reforms, the emerging market and developing economies will not be sufficiently engaged in the fund to help generate the energy and dynamism required to strengthen the global financial system and to renew the leadership role of the IMF in the global economy."